So after my Words for the Day yesterday I received the following response:
“God does NOT want unity in the church. That is a lie of satan. All that the pope has said is against what the Bible teaches . . . Jesus said, “Be ye separate”. I think it is in Matthew that He said I came to divide . . . I am disappointed you missed that part . . . Don’t know anything about the ‘Jesus alliance’ but if it is about unity with all faiths, it is not what Jesus preached; it is of satan to mislead . . . Maybe He is telling you to go home from there . . .
I’m still sick and really don’t have the energy to respond to this, so I borrowed from a post my good friend Os Hillman recently wrote:
The Power of Unity – October 18
“That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” – John 17:21
What is the greatest power that allows the unsaved to make a decision for Jesus Christ? It isn’t prayer, though this is important. It isn’t good deeds, though deeds indicate a fruitful relationship with God. It isn’t good behavior, though Christ commands us to be obedient as sons. The greatest power God’s children have over darkness is unity. Jesus talked a great deal about His oneness with the Father and the importance of unity in the Body of Christ. It is the most difficult command Jesus gave to the Church, because it wars against the most evil aspect of our sin nature-independence.
In the last days we are seeing God’s Spirit convict His children of the lack of unity among His Church. We are seeing God move between blacks and whites, ethnic groups, denominations, and parachurch groups. There is much work to be done. The walls of division and competition among His Body are a stench in God’s nostrils. He sees the competition and the pride of ownership and weeps for the lost who cannot come to Him because they cannot see Him in His Body. When His Body is one, the unbelieving see that Jesus was sent by God. It is like a supernatural key that unlocks Heaven for the heathen soul.
The key is in the hand of Christ’s Church. When there is unity, there is power. Scripture tells us five will chase 100, but 100 will chase 10,000 (see Lev. 26:8). There is a dynamic multiplication factor in unity of numbers. We are a hundred times more effective when we are a unified group. Imagine what God could do with a unified Church.
Jesus prayed that we all might be one, as the Father and He are one. He wanted the same love God has for Jesus to be in each of us. When this love is in us, we are drawn to each other with a common mission. The walls fall down. The independent spirit is broken. Competition is destroyed. Satan’s accusations are thwarted. Our love for each other is manifest to the world around us. Lost souls begin to seek this love that is so foreign to them.
Have you contributed to an independent spirit within His Body? Are you seeking to break down walls of competition among Christians, churches, denominations, and ethnic groups? Until we walk in the spirit of unity, we will hinder those in whom God has reserved a place in Heaven. Pray for His Church to be unified.”
Well said Os. Unfortunately too many don’t have a good command of the Scriptures. Numerous verses COMMAND the body of Christ, (His church) to be united as one under Christ. This lady is correct in that we must be discerning. The Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness, “Moonies” of the Unification church all offer their own version of Jesus and His Holy word and we are not to be unequally yoked with them.
Louis Palau said of the new Pope’s approach to his desire to have a relationship with Evangelicals as one of “building bridges and showing respect, knowing the differences, but majoring on what we can agree on: on the divinity of Jesus, his virgin birth, his resurrection, the second coming.”
Then there is the story of a weekly worship meeting of charismatic pastors in Buenos Aires, in which the Pope attended: He mounted the platform and called for pastors to pray for him. He knelt in front of nearly 6,000 people, and [the Protestant leaders there] laid hands and prayed. In a speech, Francis told the charismatics that they their movement was begun by the Holy Spirit as “a current of grace in the church and for the church.” He pleaded with charismatic groups not to try to organize everything or create a bureaucracy that attempts to tame the Holy Spirit.
Catholics comprise 1 1/2 billion people and combined with the Greek Orthodox Church’s 600 million Christians under their version of a Pope Patriarch Bartholomew, they represent 7-8 of all Christians that walk the face of the earth. They agree, as do I, that justification only comes through faith and grace, (Jesus dying on the cross for our sins), and not by works. Now if anyone doesn’t think that God wants everyone who feels that way to unite to preach the Gospel to the lost, then I’m sorry, but we’ll have to agree to disagree . . .
Eph. 1:3
All Praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms BECAUSE we are united with Christ . . .
October 15, 2014 – Click here to listen